Save a Public Park!

Save a Public Park in East Liberty

Please donate to the Enright Park Legal Fund.This legal fund will allow groups to go to court & ensure, when the new retail-office complex at former Penn Plaza Apartments opens, there is an Enright Park sitting next to it, with unfettered access for the public

This fall, the fight will shift to Orphan’s Court, a division of Common Pleas Court, as a judge hears the City’s petition to authorize the exchange of land with Pennley Park South, Inc., that will give them the final piece they need to construct their large office-retail development in East Liberty. But at what cost to the public?

Nowhere in the City’s petition will there be a guarantee that a new, reconfigured park will emerge as the first phase of the commercial development comes out of the ground. Nor will it ensure that when the park is finished, the public will enjoy unfettered access to it. And we’re still waiting to see when and how a community process is put in place to oversee the use of tax dollars generated by the new development in funding affordable housing nearby. It’s a complex set of terms and conditions the judge will be asked to review, and we, as community groups, believe we need to be in the room as those deliberations take place.

To be heard in that courtroom means hiring attorneys to represent the interests of the larger public, and that takes money.

The Bloomfield-Garfield Corporation (BGC), together with Enright Park Neighborhood Association, are creating a legal fund for just that purpose, and we need your support.

Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to the BGC so that the public is not left holding the short straw when all of the dust has settled.

For more background on what’s at stake with this fight, please visit the website,

the steps

To be heard in that courtroom means hiring attorneys to represent the interests of the larger public, and that takes money. Once the Money is in hand it will go directly to the attorneys who are briefed and ready for the case.

why we’re doing it

We are doing this because Parks are important. Nowhere in the City’s petition will there be a guarantee that a new, reconfigured park will emerge as the first phase of the commercial development comes out of the ground. Nor will it ensure that when the park is finished, the public will enjoy unfettered access to it. It’s a complex set of terms and conditions the judge will be asked to review, and we, as community groups, believe we need to be in the room as those deliberations take place.